


Welcome to Adulthood

by bettername2come



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Gen, Post-Season/Series 02, things that never happened
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-11
Updated: 2019-07-11
Packaged: 2020-06-26 06:44:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19762726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bettername2come/pseuds/bettername2come
Summary: Steve's just trying to get into college and have some semblance of a normal life. Hopper is just trying to help.





	Welcome to Adulthood

**Author's Note:**

> So I wrote like 95% of this a few weeks ago, and now that canon has 100% proved I was wrong, I thought I'd go ahead and post it.

Steve studied the college essay he had written one more time. No matter how much editing Nancy had done, he knew it was still crap. Of course it was – his popularity, good looks, athletic ability – those were the things he was allowed to write about. The most impressive thing he could write about was a basketball game, and it wasn’t like he had an exciting career with the Pacers ahead of him.

Add that to the growing list of things that sucked about monster hunting – you can’t use those experiences to help you get anywhere in life. And the whole thing was exactly the kind of stuff admission officers ate up. Community involvement? Check. Leadership qualities? Check. Mentoring kids? Check times six. But Steve couldn’t mention any of that without telling the rest of it. Monsters from another dimension and government conspiracies and lighting shit on fire. Forget college, he’d be headed for a straitjacket and a padded room somewhere.

He sighed, shoving the essay back into the envelope with the rest of his application and tossing it into the backseat. He’d stop at the post office after he picked up the kids. He’d already missed the early admissions deadline. He couldn’t keep putting it off. It wasn’t like his life story was going to get more usable in the next couple of days.

Steve arrived at Hop’s and reached up to knock on the door, but before his fist made contact, the door swung open. He expected to see Hop there, but the doorway was empty. From another room he heard Eleven call out, “Come in!”

Yeah, that was never going to not be weird. Steve stepped inside to see Hopper shrugging into a coat.

“Hey, kid. We need to talk,” Hopper said, nodding towards the porch. “We’ll be right back!” he called towards El’s room.

Steve headed back towards the porch, wondering what this was about. He hadn’t done anything illegal (at least not that Hopper could have known about). Was it something about The Gate? Something he didn’t want the kids to know about? If so, they were going to have to walk a lot farther away. Oh, who was he kidding? With El’s powers they could walk to Canada and she’d still know what they wanted to talk about. He waited for Hopper to begin, but Hopper remained quiet instead lighting a cigarette.

This was weird. “Is something wrong?” Steve asked. “Is it El?”

“No, there’s not – “ Hopper sighed and pulled an envelope from his pocket and held it out to Steve, who stared blankly at it for a moment. “Just take it.”

Steve did as he was told, still staring at it as he turned it over in his hand to see Hopper’s signature scrawled across the seal.

“It’s a letter,” Hopper said, taking another drag of his cigarette before dropping the butt into the snow and stamping it out.

“I know it’s a letter. What’s it for? It’s not about another monster, is it? ‘Cause I have reached my monster quota for the year.”

“Why would I give you a letter about – No, it’s a recommendation letter. For college.” He studied Steve’s face for a moment, trying to get a read on the emotions that crossed the boy’s face.

Steve shook his head in confusion. “I don’t get it. How would you? Why –“

“Nancy mentioned you were having trouble with some of your applications when she brought Mike over,” Hopper explained.

“Nancy told you that?” Steve asked. For a second, Hopper mistook the boy’s shock for anger that Nancy had brought it up, but he quickly realized it was surprise. Surprise that Nancy still cared about him, surprise that she would mention it to Hopper in the first place, and more so, surprise that Hopper had actually taken the time to write the letter. Actually, Hop couldn’t blame him for that last part. He’d barely done the essays he’d been assigned back in high school. The fact that he was writing anything besides a police report now spoke volumes about how much he appreciated the kid.

“I get it. You can’t write about saving the town from creatures from another dimension without someone thinking you wrote that essay on drugs while watching the midnight movie.”

“So, I’ve got a recommendation letter full of lies?” Steve said, starting to hand the envelope back. “I don’t need any – “

“It’s not full of lies. It’s the truth.” Off Steve’s raised eyebrow, he amended, “Okay, fine. It’s a more palatable version of the truth. About how you’ve been mentoring some younger kids through a program the station set up – Joyce and Mrs. Henderson will confirm that if anybody wants to check up on us.” He shrugged. “Had to tell her something about why Dustin’s spending so much time with you lately. Flo’s working on the paperwork to make sure that’s legit, by the way. No lies necessary. Just carefully omitting words like ‘Demogorgon’ and ‘nailbat.’”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t have to say anything. As far as I’m concerned, you help save the town, you deserve the opportunity to get the hell out of it and live some semi-normal life away from all of this.” Hopper gestured vaguely about the cabin.

Leave it all behind. If you’d asked Steve six months ago, he would’ve said _hell yeah, I’d love to get out of this town, what’s the fastest way back to civilization?_ But that was before he mattered. Before the old King Steve shell he’d been wearing since he was twelve fell away and revealed something surprisingly…genuine. Despite what Nancy had said what felt like a lifetime ago, Steve wasn’t bullshit. He had real friends now. The kind that would die for you. Or kill for you. And he had done the same. Ever since he’d run back into that house for Nancy and Jonathan he’d been a different person. A better one.

“What if I don’t want to leave?” Steve asked. He realized a moment too late just how serious he sounded and tried to dial it back. He laughed. “I mean, I know you and Mike like to think you’re the brains of this operation, but let’s face it, those punks would never have made it out of those tunnels without me.”

Steve expected Hopper to argue the point, to play the little game of “No, I care less” that was so difficult to push away even after giving up on almost every other quality about the Steve he’d been before the monsters came. Cool guys don’t act like they care, and whether Steve liked to admit it or not, the Chief was about as cool as they came. Instead, Hopper reached into his back pocket and pulled out a folded-up sheet of paper.

“I got one for that too,” he said, passing the paper to Steve.

Steve unfolded the paper and stared in shock at the words at the top. Application for Hawkins Police Department. “Are you shitting me?” The words were out of his mouth before Steve could stop himself. Probably not the best way to say “thank you.”

Hopper didn’t take offense. He just shrugged. “I just want you to have options. It’s not just college or work for your dad. If you decide to stay in Hawkins because you think we can’t weather the next disaster without you, then fine. But if you’re going to stay in this town to make sure you can protect it, well, I figure you might as well get paid for it. And it might be nice to have an officer I don’t have to lie to about all this crap.”  


“I think you just made my decision a lot harder.”

“Welcome to adulthood.”


End file.
